Why Do Good Things Happen to Bad People?
Why do good things happen to bad people?
Romans 8: 18-30
It was one winter evening in 1999. I was driving home after church and there was a religious radio program on the local station playing in my car. A prayer request was read. It was from the mother of a new born baby, Michelle. She was in the neo natal unit of a local hospital. I happen to drive by this very hospital just as the request was read and felt lead to pull into the parking lot. I went in and enquired about Michelle, they confirmed she was there but wouldn’t allow me to see her. I sat outside and pleaded for her life. I took out a note pad and wrote the mother a letter of encouragement. I put down my name but no contact details.
It was a good six months later. I was a waiter at a local coffee shop. Two young woman came in and had coffee. When I put down the bill, which was handwritten ones at the time, the one woman grabbed my arm and asked me if I were Gabriel. She told me that she is Ankia Esterhuyse, the mother of Michelle. She told me that my letter meant much to her but also that Michelle is finally being released from hospital that day.
In my young mind I was never so convinced of God’s guidance, of Him nudging my soul to cry out for Michelle’s life and Him wanting to save her life. I shared Michelle’s wonderful story of recovery with many people. A few moths later I received a phone call from her mother. Michelle passed away. To this day, I cannot see how it could be a good thing that Michelle recovered and then suddenly died. Were I deceiving myself? Was my actions but an ego trip that had nothing to do with God and me meeting the mother a totally random event? She sent me the funeral handout of Michelle and to this day I carry it as a painful reminder that everything that happens doesn’t always make sense. I have kept my faith, but the event tested my faith.
Many of us have a Michelle. Many of us got a Hannah just a week or two ago. Sometimes it is even closer to home. Your own child dying of cancer or a family member being an innocent victim of a random senseless attack or disaster. If you take God seriously it will cause ripples if not waves in your faith. If there is this kind of stirring in a relationship, it calls for an honest conversation. In immature relationships people either shout or walk out and slam doors. We have that option when it comes to God when things happen that we don’t like or understand. But the better option is to go into conversation with God. He doesn’t walk out on people that does that, not even when they are angry at Him. Speaking of that, I today will proceed to look at a few Bible texts and venture into an explanation about things like the death of a baby. But please do not dump this on anybody that is still in shock and horror about a recent tragedy. The Bible has many psalms and a whole book devoted to lament and I think the first proper response to something that shakes you is simply to lament and cry. God welcomes that. God knows that in the initial stages the only language one can understand is that of empathy and compassion. I dare say you and I have no right to offer a rational explanation about God’s way if we haven’t first loved that person.
But when we do move on to the biblical testimony of God and his attributes, there is much comfort to be gained from it. Even if it doesn’t at first sound comforting.
God is Sovereign
When I say the Queen of England is sovereign, what does that mean? It basically means that she has freedom to act in a way that influences the people living in the United Kingdom. It means she can bestow on them responsibilities, restrictions and laws to which they need to adhere. Not everybody might like or agree with the things she does that influences them. But the authority was entrusted to her to embody the purposes of the Kingdom and decree things that serves those purposes.
So, what does it mean when the Bible says God is sovereign? It does say so in many places. Let’s look at a few: In Isaiah 43: 10-13 it says:
10″You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. 11I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior. 12I have revealed and saved and proclaimed- I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “that I am God. 13Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”
In Psalm 135: 6 it says:
6The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths
In Isaiah 14: 27 a very important statement is made about God and his purposes:
27For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?
In Isaiah 46: 9-10 it says:
9Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’
Now why is this important? Because we believe that the Bible is the authoritative source when it comes to knowing who God is and what He is like. We call it the Word of God. We say by that this is what God has to say and reveal about Himself to us.
He rules. He has the last say. He knows everything. Nothing catches Him off guard, nothing deters His purposes. Even when it comes to the queen one can have your doubts about her purposes. You could doubt if they are indeed good and well-informed ones or if she is true to them. But with God, it’s different. He isn’t elected or even created. He is the first Mover, far superior in knowledge, ability, intelligence, competency and love to any one of us. He is good. His purposes are good ones, the absolute best ones and the world is under his sovereign power. More on this and the problems it can create alongside the comfort it can give us later. Let us park with the thought that if God is sovereign it implies that nothing is too big for Him to handle and make it serve His purposes.
God Decrees
God does not only have sovereign power. He uses it. God is outside of time. He created time. He decrees what will happen in time even though He is not limited by time. He decrees things that will serve his purposes. He decrees salvation for those He have destined for it. His kingdom is contested. It therefore contains things that is not his will but He still allowed them and make them glorify Him and serve his ultimate purposes. Some things, the good ones, God directly wills. Others things, sometimes seemingly evil things, He wills in the sense that He allows them to happen even though He doesn’t rejoice in it happening.
I know it is kind of difficult to accept that God foreknew and even decreed things like babies getting cancer by allowing it. An analogy might be helpful. I go to Stephanie and Mike’s home. I get there and the door is open. They are friendly people so I go right in. As I enter I hear loud banging noises coming from the washroom. As I get closer it becomes louder and louder. I peak in and to my horror I see Mike and Stephanie covered in dust and they are absolutely destroying their bathroom. They are knocking out tiles and ripping out the basins and the toilet. I run out, scared for my life and questioning their sanity. I ask myself why would people do that to a decent washroom. Later that day I have a conversation with a mutual friend of Mike and Stephanie. The guy tells me how much they like washrooms. I think to myself this guy has no idea what he is talking about. I witnessed first hand that they absolutely hate bathrooms!
What clouds my judgement? Possibly two things. Firstly, I have had no idea about their purpose. Secondly, I didn’t see the end result. Had I seen how splendidly they redid their washroom, I would have framed what I saw that day way differently. It is not that they like knocking out tiles and toilets, they probably find it very hard and tiring but they consider it a necessary part of the purpose, the end result they want to achieve.
We sometimes walk into a story without realising it started way before we get here and it ends long after we left it. Some of the things God does and allows seems irrational and dangerous and cruel. It might look like that because we do not see the end result or we don’t even understand God’s good purpose. One day however we will. I mean even with some things that make us cry, we look back and see how it served the good in our lifetime. There are others things where we will only see the good it served after our lifetime. We sometimes think God hates the washroom whilst he actually rescues it by making it new.
In Isaiah 41: 21-23 we read:
21″Present your case,” says the LORD. “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King. 22″Tell us, you idols, what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, 23tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear.
Chapters 40 to 48 in the book of Isaiah is a part where the false gods are brought to trail and exposed before the God of Israel. In these verses the idols are accused of being unable to do two things that the God of Israel can do: 1) They don’t know the future and 2) they do not know the ultimate purpose of past events.
Sometimes God’s decrees are experienced as providence as they unfold in time. We experience such providence as intervention. Like God preventing Abimelech from sinning in Genesis 20 when he thought Sarah was Abraham’s sister. Proverbs 16: 9; 19: 21, 20: 24 and 21: 1 are all verses that tells us that God provides deliverance according to his purposes. To us in time it is experienced as interventions whereas to God who is outside of time it is simply his decree unfolding in time. It is funny how we never ask of the things we experience as providential: “How could this happen?” As if we feel entitled to it, not recipients of mercy. We do however quickly ask of things we don’t like or understand: “How could this happen?” as if we as fallen and sinful don’t deserve it. As if God owes us to save us and is indebted when things happen, we don’t like. That thinking makes us arrogantly the sovereign one in our minds, not God.
So why pray if God decrees for everything to happen, even the things outside of His will? God also decreed our prayers. In Genesis 6, there is a strange verse that mentioned that people began calling on the name of the Lord. God decreed that some people would have a urge to call out to Him. Also that their pleas would sometimes e the relational exchange that moves Him into action. I have heard many prayer requests on that radio station many times before but that evening I couldn’t help but pray for Michelle, as I am sure Neil and others were compelled to pray for Hannah. Had Michelle and Hannah been delivered, we would have praised God for his providence. This leaves us with the obvious question, who should we frame it when evil and bad seems to win?
God wins…in the end
If God is all good and hates sin and evil and death, if nothing takes place outside his sovereign decree, why does evil exist? Isaiah 45: 5, 7 says:
5I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,
I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things
God says here that He ultimately brings prosperity and disaster. God takes responsibility for it being in our lives. In ways we cannot always understand and see, God makes the bad serve the glorification of His name and ultimate purposes just as much as the good. The comfort we have when a Hannah and A Michelle dies, is not that it “comes from the devil” because that tells people that God are sometimes blindsided and robbed by evil and it is up to us to fight and conquer evil. It can even sound like an accusation when you say to people that it was the devil who did it because it implies that the person was actually some kind of easy target for the devil because of a lacking faith. The hope lies in the fact that God takes responsibility for their lives and will glorify His name and purposes even through their short lives and unwanted deaths. The hope lies, strange as it my seem at first, in the fact that a good God decreed and foreknew Hannah’s plight and still allowed it to happen because it serve His ultimate purposes, an ultimate purpose that is ultimately best for us and one in which Hannah now shares already..
God is not the author of evil. He does not delight in. He wept at Lazarus grave. He does sometimes allow it for reason we don’t understand right now, but will rejoice in one day. And He subjects it to serve His good and perfect purposes in spite of the heartache and suffering it causes.
Close
When it comes to movies, I have realized that there are basically two kinds of movies. There are what I call affirming movies. Those would be the Hallmarkish kind where a fairly predictable story plays out the way you like it. It doesn’t give you anxiety or fear and it doesn’t challenge you. It basically just affirms you-that how you like it is the best way and possible. We sometimes refer to it as feel-good movies. I think that is good to call it that. Just don’t call it good movies. Because they aren’t. Good movies are tarnforming moevies. It is movies where many things doesn’t happen as you you expect it would. Although some things can be affirming and pleasant in a transforming movie it always adds a good dose of suspense anxiety and even horror to your life. You don’t walk out of there thinking you are good just the way you are. You walk out of them challenged and inspired to change for the better.
I think many people want and expect life to be an affirming story. It could have been were it not that we have fallen in sin. Because of that reality it wouldn’t be a good story if it only affirmed us. It would deny the fact that we need to be changed and rescued from our sinful state. God isn’t interested in giving those He love just an affirming and pleasant story-it will send us right to hell! He needs to write a transforming story. There need to be parts that we don’t expect or like. But He is a master storyteller. All the lose ends will be tied together in a meaningful and redeeming way at the end. And if we are tripped and saddened by parts that don’t make sense to us and makes it look like evil won, we should remind ourselves that it is not yet the end. You are not in an affirming story but a transforming one.
One day a truly innocent man was sent to a brutal death by humankind. It was not only a good man but a perfect loving and caring one. Never has evil so triumph than on that day when Jesus was sent to the cross to die. But paradoxically, never has God’s purposes been accomplished and triumph over evil by that very thing happening. It transformed Jesus to one who has a place of authority at the right hand of God. It transformed us into people with hope and purpose and meaning.
I trust that it also transformed Hannah and Michelle in beautiful ways we cannot see yet but will marvel at and glorify God for one day. By His grace their sad stories will one day be glorious stories we can relish.
Why does bad things happen to good people? That happened only once and He volunteered.
Amen